Musings on wine, food, recipes, restaurants, and other topics that I, as a dedicated, although not professional, oenophile find interesting. Look for food/wine-related updates 1-4 times/month. Feel free to follow me on Twitter and like my Facebook page.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Tasting Notes: Flight Night at Feast

Okay, I'm not sure exactly what Feast calls its Tuesday night wine special because it's not on the web site. We heard about it through their email list. Tune in on Thursday to see Hubby's and my (but mostly his) idea for addressing this lack of centralized wine special info.

Here's the deal: go to Feast on Tuesday night, and for $10, you get four tastes of any of the wines that are available by the glass. We like Feast, we weren't doing anything last Tuesday, and miraculously, we were both home by 6:30, so we decided to try it out. Since there were two of us, we got to try eight. You can get them one (or two) at a time or have them bring out all eight at once. Yeah, if you know us, you can easily picture us having eight glasses of wine lined up at the table.

Le Grande Noir (Coteaux de L’Ardeche): 70% Chardonnay, 30% Viognier Gardenia-peach with lime nose. The body has the fruit/floral characteristics of the Viognier plus the citrus chard backbone.Rating: Very Good

Roseum Vina Robles (Paso Robles): Cran-strawberry nose. Very light-bodied with good acidity and little fruit kick to finish. It wants food and brings out the flavor of cheese. Also remarkable in that it's a pink wine that Hubby liked.Rating: Very Good w/ food

La Monica Montepulciano (Abruzzo): Leather-raisin nose, but a strumpet with only a light body with ripe fruit.Rating: Okay

French Maid Pinot Noir (Pays d'Oc): Butter and dark fruit all the way through. Very smooth with a little smoky oak. According to Hubby, "black forest cake in a glass."Rating: Excellent

Delas Feres Cotes du Rhone (Rhone Valley): Syrah, Mourvedre and GrenacheDark fruit & spice with a lingering finish and a hint of herb.Rating: Good to Very Good

We worked on the wines through the meal, so I don't have specific pairings. We started with the "Mushroom Chips," breaded and lightly fried slices of mushrooms served with a creamy dipping sauce. We then split a large Feast salad. Here's a hint: the small salad is $6; the large is $10, but if you split it, there's a $3 sharing fee. So, two small salads are $1 cheaper than splitting a large. Hubby had the Cedar Planked Atlantic Salmon, which he pronounced to be very good. I went for the Shrimp, Spinach, Mushroom, and Tomato Pizza, which would've been better without the strong-tasting shrimp. For dessert, I had to have my favorite -- the Kahlua cake. Hubby had a glass of port.

Yeah, the wines were the main attraction that evening, although Feast is still one of my favorites in Decatur for a casual dinner. If you're not familiar with wine, try sitting at the bar. We observed two wine newbies being guided through the process by the very knowledgeable bartender. Just skip the shrimp pizza and get your own salad.